Nashville Supercross round 14 wrap up

It didn’t need to be 4/20 to have a good time in Nashville as the town knows how to show visitors a good time. Round 14 of the 2024 Supercross season rolled into town with the 250 points races close and the 450 points lead tied between Jett Lawrence and Cooper Webb. The stage was set for some great racing and maybe even a little drama. Last year in Nashville it was a tough one for the 450SX class as we lost Cooper Webb, Justin Barcia, and Jason Anderson to season-ending injuries. There were plenty of tipovers in the sand and far rhythm section during qualifying but the night show would have its own casualties.

The weather was looking to have a factor in the weekend racing with rain leading up to the weekend. The Saturday forecast looked clear but the dirt took on a lot of rain when they moved the dirt in so they covered the track on Thursday for the rain and canceled the press day ride for Friday. They took the tarps off the track on Friday afternoon only to have a late-night downpour for about 20 minutes in the middle of the night. The track looked saturated in the morning. The dirtwurx crew got to work scraping and working the dirt, while free practice was canceled giving more time for the weather to try and dry things out.

250SX West Heat

The first heat in Nashville would be the group of 250SX west coast riders that lined up. The race starts with Levi Kitchen grapping a great start only to push wide in the first corner and looses the lead to Ryder D.. We also see Nicoletti and Smith get past Kitchen and pressuring Ryder early in the race. In the first section after the start we saw Marchbanks jump into the back of Smith and go down hard. Levi has more bad luck and is forced off track briefly by a downed rider and enters back in nineth place. Smith makes the pass for second and Shimoda is running in fourth behind Phil.

The race is red-flagged as Marchbanks is still down in the jump section. We later find out he hit his head on the take-off of a jump and broke a thumb. He did not return for any racing and was taken to a local hospital for treatment. When the race would restart it would be a staggered start since the leader had completed three laps already. We see RJ passes into fourth place just before the sand section early in the race restart and Kitchen is now running in seventh place. Shortly later RJ is jumping through the whoops to make the pass on Ryder on the inside of the corner for the lead. Smith takes advantage of Ryder also and makes the pass for second all on the final lap of the heat race.

250SX East Heat

In the next heat race, we have the 250 East group ready to drop the gate. We see Vialle and Schock get great starts and running up front early with Deegan in third place only to go down entering the sand section and falls way back on the first lap. Brown is running in third and starting to pressure Schock for second place while Cochran is looking very good early in this race in fourth place with a few laps into the heat. With around 3:45 left in the race, we see Deegan has moved up to tenth place and is battling hard with Linville in ninth. Deegan had the pass in the corner but Linville cuts under and passed him back, then lost a place to Hymas. Deegan is now in eleventh and is two spots out of advancing to the main event. Romano goes down in the sand and falls way back, moving Deegan back into tenth place and still fighting with Linville for that last transfer position. Haiden gets passed him with 2 laps left and sets sights on McAdoo for eighth place. Vialle is running smoothly in the lead with a 3.5 second gap over Brown and Schock. At the checkered flag, the top three spots remain the same.

450 Heat 1

The gate drops on the first 450 main and Justin Cooper gets a great start with Ken cutting under him early for the lead. Adam also gets a good start and is running in third but makes the pass over Cooper for second who briefly went off the track and runs in third now. Chase is running in fifth place around the halfway point of the race. We see Sexton pressuring Cooper for fourth place and gets the pass in the sand section to make it stick. Ken now has a three-second lead over Adam with around two minutes left in the race. Ken shortly later stalls the bike and falls back to fourth place. Adam is now out front and leading for a couple of laps, but Hunter is closing in on him. Sexton is now running in third place and he and Hunter are closing the gap on Adam with time running out in the heat race. Hunter gets a good drive out of the sand section and powers past Adam for the lead with one lap left. Chase tried to pass Adam also but got loose and nearly hit Adam in the whoops section and finished in third place. This is the second heat win for Hunter and Adam grabs second place.

450 Heat 2

In this heat race, we see Eli get a great start but gets undercut by Jett and Webb in the first corner. Stewart is looking fast in the early part of the race and is able to make a pass stick over Eli in the sand section for third place. With three minutes left in the race the top four running order remains the same. The leaders are both jumping and trying to skim the whoops. We saw Eli get the pass on Stewart for third place with 1:30 left in the race. The triple, triple, triple line Webb is doing through the whoops appears to be the fastest currently. With two laps left the top three running order remains Jett, Webb, and Eli all around two seconds from each other. The race ends with the same order.

250 Showdown main event

The 250 Main Event is the first time of the night and year we get to see all of the 250SX class line up against each other to see how things stack up. Entering the first corner we see Hampshire up front with Smith close by him and Vialle in third place. At the end of the first section, we see McAdoo drift over into Levi knocking him down and getting run over by another rider. In the same corner, McAdoo goes to the ground also and we see both red plate holders on the ground and the field racing past them. By the time they are able to get up, they are in a distant 21st and 22nd position and looking uncomfortable. Shimoda moves into second place early on the first lap. The two points leaders are back to racing but Levi seems to be able to ride faster then McAdoo which must be in worse shape. Hampshire is looking near perfect running up front with Shimoda, Smith, and Vialle behind him. At this point, Deegan is running in eleventh place with 11:30 left in the moto and Kitchen passes McAdoo for 21st place.

With around 10:22 left in the race, Smith goes down in the whoops and falls back to sixth place and Vialle is now running in third. Jalek Swoll is having a solid race so far in fourth place for the Triumph rider with around 8 minutes left in the race. We see McAdoo unable to continue and pull off the track and leave. With six minutes left we see Hampshire now with a five-second lead on Shimoda and Levi has passed Bennick for 20th place. He is slowly working is way back into points-paying positions. Deegan is running in eighth and looking to pass Phil for seventh which only takes one lap to overtake him in the whoops section. With time hitting zero, Levi is now moved into 15th place and then Cochran’s bike stops for some reason handing another spot to leaving. This leaves him just three points behind RJ in the season points standing and he has done a great job of minimizing the damage from the earlier crash.

450 Main event

The main event starts with Eli getting another great jump and enters the first corner with Jett right behind him with Webb and Roczen close behind. In his early race push, we see Ken slip past Webb for third place and then passes Jett just two corners later with his early race speed he is known for. The top four running order is now Eli, Ken, Jett, and Webb and we see Sexton in seventh behind Anderson. We see Eli and Ken are tripling into the whoops section early while Jett continues to double-single into the whoops. With 16:30 left in the moto, Sexton misses the double in front of the start and crashes hard into the corner before the whoops and walks off holding shoulder. He is shown on TV broadcast barking at his mechanic and one can only suspect a bike issue as the cause. Five minutes into the moto, Eli is running the fastest lap times with Jett and Webb not far off them. The crowd is loud in support of Eli as he works his way around the track in the lead. With around 14 minutes left, Ken lands the triple into the whoops and his shock fails and sends him hard over the bast at the end of the whoops. He was down for a long time and the race was in danger of a red flag. Took a couple of laps to get him up and moving off to the side safely on his own. At the 12 min left point Eli is still running up front with 1.5 second lead over Jett and an 8 second gap back to Webb. Shortly later there are two riders down in the sand section forcing Eli to go wide to the outside slowing him and allowing Jett by for the lead easily on the inside. A few laps later we see Jett has adjusted and is now able to triple into the whoops from the inside allowing him to keep the speed up with a safe line. The lead has extended to six seconds with around six minutes left in the main. Not must changes over the rest of the race with two laps left the lead is eight seconds and the top five are Jett, Eli, Cooper, Jason, and Justin. Jett holds on for the win and now leads Webb by five points in the championship.

All photo credit: N. Suhr